What a Zaveri Makes of the Zaveri Bazaar Blast

When Mumbai jeweler Jignesh Zaveri, heard a loud noise near his office on Wednesday evening, he immediately knew what it was.

Pravin Jain/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A view of Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar soon after the blast on Wednesday.

He had heard the same sound just eight years ago, in August 2003, when a bomb went off near his office in Zaveri Bazaar. The name “zaveri”—that he shares with the market—means jeweler.

“We are used to all this,” said Mr. Zaveri, who is 43. The neighborhood was targeted also in deadly 1993 bomb blasts, but the bomb was defused that time.

Zaveri Bazaar is a “prime target for the terrorist always,” said Mr. Zaveri, a partner at Keshavlal Dalpatbhai Zaveri & Sons. This time, the blast was “bang behind my shop,” he said.

While he and his staff were not affected, two of Mr. Zaveri’s relatives were killed by the bomb that went off in Opera House on Wednesday. In 2003, Mr. Zaveri said that from the fifth floor of his office building, he saw “bodies flying in the air.”

Yesterday’s blasts in three locations at rush hour killed 18 people and injured over 131, according to India’s home ministry. Mr. Zaveri says he believes that the death toll in his high density neighborhood is higher than the official figures.

Zaveri Bazaar has a series of narrow lanes which house wholesale markets for various types of products. There’s a street full of just stationary shops, another one selling only chemicals and another street dedicated to textile stores. But the most prominent trade in this area is that of jewelry and bullion shops that sell bricks of gold.

Zaveri Bazaar is probably the antithesis of what one would imagine as an ideal neighborhood for jewelry shops. Instead of swanky showrooms, it’s a congested area with dilapidated buildings. One recent visitor described having to climb a rickety metal ladder to reach a well-known gold dealer’s office.

Despite shabby appearances, most of these stores house hundreds of thousand dollars worth of gold and diamond jewelry at all times. They have vaults that shopkeepers say won’t be damaged even by a bomb blast, but during the day, a large part of the jewelry is out on display.

It’s not clear if any jewelry shops were impacted by Wednesday’s blasts, or how much property might have been damaged.

On Thursday, the jewelry market was closed but some shopkeepers like Mr. Zaveri went to their shops to check that things were in order after they left in a hurry the day before.

The jewelry business in this area might be temporarily affected for some weeks, as customers stay away. But jewelers have no plans of moving out, partly because of their emotional attachment to the area. Many of them believe that they are protected by Goddess Mumbadevi, who has a temple in the area, and after whom the city of Mumbai has been named.

“Even in our dreams we can’t leave Zaveri Bazaar,” said Prakash Hegde, manager of a prominent jewelry chain in the city.

“Mumbaikars are strong,” said Prithviraj Kothari, president of the Bombay Bullion Association, who has an office in the market.

Mr. Kothari doesn’t think there’s much that the police can do to make the area secure, because the crowd is too large. But Mr. Zaveri thinks there are solutions, such as improving the various intelligence systems managed by the authorities.

Since Mumbai’s high density makes it an obvious terror target, Mr. Zaveri thinks authorities should also take measures to stop the flow of immigrants to the city. “Introduce a visa for people wanting to visit Mumbai,” said Mr. Zaveri, whose last name is common in the area.

Mr. Zaveri said the market will likely reopen in a few days. His family members have urged him not to go back to office, but he said that’s not a solution. “If I move elsewhere, there’s no guarantee that blasts won’t happen there,” he said.

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